July 14, 2022
The recent floods – and the damage caused – will be a focus of Friday’s Darling Downs and South West (DDSWQ) Council of Mayors’ meeting.
The DDSWQ, chaired by Toowoomba mayor Paul Antonio, represents the council areas of Toowoomba and the Southern Downs as well as Bulloo, Quilpie, Paroo, Murweh, Maranoa, Balonne, Western Downs and Goondiwindi.
Mayor Antonio said the meeting, to be held in Goondiwindi, would be attended by the Queensland Reconstruction Authority’s (QRA) State Recovery Coordinator Major-General Jake Elwood.
“The recent wet weather has played havoc in just about every area that the DDSWQ Council of Mayors represents,” Mayor Antonio said.
“The ongoing recovery efforts will be a mammoth task for many regions across the Darling Downs and South-West and we will need help from the State.
“It’s important Major-General Elwood understands our issues and the ongoing needs of local government as we recover from as many as four flooding events in some areas.
“The damage to local road networks has been extensive and I’ll certainly be leading the chorus with Major-General Elwood that we need to find ways to build resilience into our local infrastructure to withstand future events through betterment funding.
“There’s little point building back infrastructure at huge cost that simply gets washed away in the next flood and many of the DDSWQ Mayors share that sentiment.”
